Brand Planning, Ideas & Innovation, Mullen //

Is mobile right for your brand?

Posted by John Moore on 06/12/09
tags: , , , , , , , , , ,

Determining whether mobile is right for your brand is a critical question, as many marketers have fallen into the trap of “get me one of these.” The answer to  is often poorly articulated and overly complicated. So here it is, a simple answer to a simple question.

Three Key Steps:

1.     Determine how much of your audience is using mobile beyond voice

  • If your audience is using their phone to primarily dial a seven digit number, you don’t need to me to tell you mobile advertising is not right for your brand. A good guide is to adhere to a recent Insight Express study where they divided the mobile population into three groups:
    • Mobile Pioneers (15%): the smart phone power users have three core characteristics: the first sub segment is they tend to be young (18-34) and skew male and the second sub segment is they have high household incomes. As an example, the iPhone has a 200 index with those making more than $100K+. Lastly, they tend to live in major metropolitan markets.
    • Mobile Wannabes (25%): starting to buy smart phones and if the Pioneers provide traction, the Wannabes provide scale.
    • Mobile Traditionalists (65%): 2/3 are over 35

If your brand has confirmed that your target is using mobile beyond voice, now you’re ready to advance to steps two and three…

2.       Determine which device/carrier your audience is using

  • The executive is on the Blackberry, moms may be using the Palm Treo and if your target has a high ethnic concentration, look at T-Mobile’s Android. And always consider the iPhone platform as their users have the most voracious appetite of data vis-a-vis all other smart phones.

3.  Interpret the role of your brand in the medium

  • The key to mobile is creating a wonderful and delightful experience. Take advantage of the channels inherent strengths and tailor the experience around the mobility of the phone. Starbucks is doing a great job helping their ardent fans find the nearest Starbucks with their own app (Bucksme) and marketing on the Where mobile app. We have recently launched an app for Stanley and are building several others for some of our major clients.

So there you are, if your target are young men or white collar & affluent, get started. The last thing you want to do is let your competitive set beat you to the punch in this emerging and powerful medium.

What do you think? Are there any other important rules to think about before the process begins?

  • Bryan Fuhr

    This is a great discussion topic, John.

    At AKQA, we’re often asked to provide strategic counsel on how brands should approach mobile platforms. We share your sentiment on keeping it simple, but our approach to communications planning differs.

    We believe that mobile provides brands an opportunity to close gaps between screens. As such, it creates a way to fill unmet user needs through persistent, direct connections.

    Brands should consider investing in mobile concepts when extending their footprints can provide a clear payoff. And usually there is one! It’s driving deeper relationships through product enrichment, wayfinding, community-building, or contextual reminders.

    Of course, the mobile experience should be visually appealing and adhere to good information design practices, as you mention. All this to say there’s a space in mobile for everyone so that the offering provides utility or entertainment rather than redundancy.

  • http://AKQA Bryan Fuhr

    This is a great discussion topic, John.

    At AKQA, we’re often asked to provide strategic counsel on how brands should approach mobile platforms. We share your sentiment on keeping it simple, but our approach to communications planning differs.

    We believe that mobile provides brands an opportunity to close gaps between screens. As such, it creates a way to fill unmet user needs through persistent, direct connections.

    Brands should consider investing in mobile concepts when extending their footprints can provide a clear payoff. And usually there is one! It’s driving deeper relationships through product enrichment, wayfinding, community-building, or contextual reminders.

    Of course, the mobile experience should be visually appealing and adhere to good information design practices, as you mention. All this to say there’s a space in mobile for everyone so that the offering provides utility or entertainment rather than redundancy.

  • http://www.ffphoto.com/ Forrest Frazier

    This leads to the next logical question of how to use mobile effectively. One site I use often, mailchimp.com, tracked what parts of their website mobile users interacted with then offered a stripped down version of their site focusing only on the identified areas for mobile users. Now navigating to the content I am interested in is quick and easy. Building an app for this same purpose would probably be overkill and not more effective than a clean mobile web interface.

    With the right forethought a brands foray into mobile can offer users more options while keeping capital expenditures in check.

  • http://www.ffphoto.com Forrest Frazier

    This leads to the next logical question of how to use mobile effectively. One site I use often, mailchimp.com, tracked what parts of their website mobile users interacted with then offered a stripped down version of their site focusing only on the identified areas for mobile users. Now navigating to the content I am interested in is quick and easy. Building an app for this same purpose would probably be overkill and not more effective than a clean mobile web interface.

    With the right forethought a brands foray into mobile can offer users more options while keeping capital expenditures in check.

  • John Moore

    Bryan,

    Thanks for responding and I love some of the mobile work from AKQA — especially the Target holiday app! I also love the nomenclature “closing the gaps between screens.”

    Lastly, agree with everything you have to say and my initial piece was meant as the starting point or completely understand that once you’ve decided mobile is right for your brand the hard work has just begun. Most apps provide no real consumer benefit and are simply thrown together quickly so a brand can say they are in the space.

    John

  • John Moore

    Bryan,

    Thanks for responsing and I love some of the mobile work from AKQA — espcially the Target holiday app! I also love the nomenclature “closing the gaps between screens.”

    Lastly, agee with everything you have to say and my initial piece was meant as the starting point or completely undersatnd that once you’ve decided mobile is right for your brand the hard work has just begun. Most apps provide no real consumer benefit and are simply thrown together quickly so a brand can say they are in the space.

    John

  • Mushtaq_ahmad43

    I like gmobile 72E mobile. This is very much effective and powerful to catch TV wave lengths. It is very nice and very cute too.

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